South Alive in running for top honour

ILT Foundation chairman Alan Dennis (left), Invercargill Deputy Mayor Rebecca Amundsen and Community Trust Southland general manager Jackie Flutey cut the ribbon at the opening of South Alive's new community centre The Pod, behind The Pantry, in South City, recently.

THE South Invercargill Urban Rejuvenation Charitable Trust (South Alive) will be in the running for the 2017 Trustpower National Community Awards in Queenstown from April 13-15.

Trustpower community relations representative Alice Boyd, who visited Invercargill recently to help promote this year’s awards, said she thought South Alive, the Invercargill-Southland Regional Supreme Winner for 2017, was in with a good chance of making it a double for Southland by following in the footsteps of fellow Invercargill-based community group Koha Kai, which won the National Supreme Award in 2016.

“Invercargill and the wider Southland region has some incredibly passionate and successful community organisations. This year we’re excited to have South Alive representing Invercargill-Southland at the awards and from what I’ve seen, they’re pretty amazing – that clear impact they’ve had on Invercargill is really cool.”

This year the awards mark 25 years of recognising and rewarding volunteer-based community nationwide. To celebrate the occasion, a greater amount of prize money is being offered.

Miss Boyd said the prize money for an award would double to $1000, while regional supreme winners would receive $2000 (up from $1500 last year).

Nominations for this year’s awards opened on March 5 and close on May 31.

Miss Boyd said she encouraged people to go online and nominate a deserving organisation in their community.

“Volunteers don’t like shouting about themselves, so if you can give them a nudge in the right direction or a shout out, that would be great.”